Recording: Thin Edge New Music Collective

Artist: Thin Edge New Music Collective

Piece: Fothem [composer: Mick Barr]

Recorded at Jam Factory (Intersection – Day 1/The Music Gallery's Departures Series), August 31, 2017.

Thin Edge New Music Collective - Fothem

In recent years, the Intersection Festival would normally consist of a paid concert, usually the night before the day-long extravaganza in Yonge-Dundas Square. This year, however, under the continued guidance of Burn Down The Capital's Tad Michalak the festival expanded to four events, including a pair of concerts at The Jam Factory. In an echo of last year, this opening night was once more a co-presentation with the Music Gallery's Departures Series, mixing Thin Edge's chamber styles with a visiting composer/musician.

After a panel discussion teasing out the common threads between metal and "classical" music (including a mutual affinity for virtuosity and technical perfection), Thin Edge tackled a trio of pieces from visitor Mick Barr, who certainly keeps his feet planted in both of those worlds. Besides an affinity for some intense sawing, his chamber works weren't over-the-top "metal" in their execution. Operating just as a string trio/quartet (with piano from Cheryl Duvall in the middle piece) this final selection just had strings from Ilana Waniuk, Suhashini Arulanandam, and Amahl Arulanandam.

[You can see some footage from this set over at Brandon Caswell Douglas' Intersection playlist.]

[Thin Edge's seventh season opens on October 10th with "Speaking", featuring Chicago-based pianist Shi-An Costello.]

Recording: The Lady Hedonism Consort of Toronto

Artist: The Lady Hedonism Consort of Toronto

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at Array Space (Audiopollination #42.2), May 22, 2016.

The Lady Hedonism Consort of Toronto - [excerpt 1]

The Lady Hedonism Consort of Toronto - [excerpt 2, part 1]

The Lady Hedonism Consort of Toronto - [excerpt 2, part 2]

This large improvising ensemble was convened by Nilan Perera, who added some electric bass to an opening drone section but otherwise primarily conducted. Using some basic hand signs (and occasional vocal instruction) he built up series of loops and competing riffs that tended more toward sympathetic juxtapositions rather than abrasiveness. The members of the ensemble were: Heather Saumer, Bea Labikova, Alexandra Spence, Laura Swankey, Ilana Waniuk, Laura Bates, Aline Homzy and Sanaz Nakhjavani.

Recording: The Nick Storring Band

Artist: The Nick Storring Band

Song: Untitled^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 1), February 26, 2016.

The Nick Storring Band - Untitled [excerpt]

Once again, the Somewhere There Festival filled up the Tranzac with a weekend jam-packed full of locally-based creative music. After an opening speech, the fest's first music was brought via this new delivery system for cellist Nick Storring's compositional and arranging talents. Surrounded by some frequent collaborators (including John Mark Sherlock on clavinet + pianet, Germaine Liu on percussion and Ilana Waniuk on violin), the music explored some zones of quiet drift and occasional clatter familiar in Storring's work. But Manticore's Zoë Alexis-Abrams served as the essential disruptive element here with her vocal interjections keeping the music from settling too easily into place.

^* Nick has commented that this one is, as yet, untitled.

photo by Melissa Goldstein.

Recording: Adam Rudolph & Go: Organic Toronto Orchestra

Artist: Adam Rudolph & Go: Organic Toronto Orchestra

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at The Music Gallery, January 23, 2016.

Adam Rudolph & Go: Organic Toronto Orchestra - [set 1, 1st piece] [excerpt]

Adam Rudolph & Go: Organic Toronto Orchestra - [set 2, 3rd piece] [excerpt]

Adam Rudolph is a master percussionist who has worked with many luminaries, including Yusef Lateef. But this visit to the Music Gallery saw him working as teacher and conductor to a large-format ensemble¹ brought together to get an intensive grounding in his musical philosophy and methods. Speaking to Nilan Perera before the show, he described the project as "a 21st century idea of what an orchestra could be", designed to create room for "mi", a word of the Dogon people of Mali that expresses how the inner voice of a musician can be brought forth in the music they play — very much the contrary of the image of the ensemble player in European "classical" music whose function is to remove themselves to express the composer's ideas. (He also spoke of African-American call-and-response as one of his foundational musical experiences, which was a revealing lens on the night's music.)

Conducting solves what's often the biggest problem of large-group improvisation: finding a shape and knowing when to stop. The most visible aspect of several days' work with the crew of local musicians was his use of elaborate hand signals and vivid body language — he was the most animated conductor I've seen leading an ensemble since Gergiev. Obviously, there was a lot more going on under the surface in terms of how his compositions created a structure but left lots of room for indeterminacy. The upshot of all of this was a group whose textures ranged widely — from the more formally-arranged sounds of the short first extract here that wouldn't sound out of place at a typical "New Music" concert to the free-spirited blaxploitaion big-band improv of the second, which showed how this large group could nimbly stop-and-start on a dime. Really quite wonderful stuff. This played to a full house at the Music Gallery, where it looked like many people were attracted by Rudolph's involvement. Here's hoping some in the crowd will be inspired to seek out some more from the local participants who can be found joyfully improvising in the city's creative music scenes.

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¹ The ensemble was as follows:

• Vocals : Tova Kardonne, Zoe Alexis-Abrams
• Horns: Lina Allemano, Heather Segger, Jay Hay, Karen Ng
• Strings: Ilana Walniuk, Aline Homzy, Araz Salek, Rob Clutton
• Drumkit/percussion: Joe Sorbara
• Hand percussion Raphael Roter, Rakesh Tewari
• Keys: Simeon Abbott
• Turntables/Electronics: SlowPitchSound
• Guitar: Luan Phung

Recording: Bespoken feat. Germaine Liu

Artist: Bespoken feat. Germaine Liu

Song: Crossfading Accents [composer; Germaine Liu]

Recorded at Ratio, September 23, 2015.

Bespoken feat. Germaine Liu - Crossfading Accents

Experimental chamber ensemble Bespoken made a welcome return to close out this show, playing three new pieces whose scores looked as unique as their composers. Viewed from across the room, Nick Storring's looked like a circuit diagram, with lines connecting different sections, while Matthew Ramolo's looked like a typewritten prose poem. Germaine Liu (guesting with the group in the stead of Brandon Valdivia) brought this piece whose score looked like a mystical code sheet, with a series of hexagram-like figures apparently showing the shifting accents in the ongoing patterns-of-six. With its slightly-unsteady percussive lurch, it sounded a bit like a loop of "Powerhouse" being processed on a cartoon assembly line.

Six years/Six pack: Jonathan Adjemian

MFS has turned six! My introductory thoughts on this landmark can be found here, but long story short: I asked some folks to pick some of their favourites to help me celebrate.

Today's list is from Jonathan Adjemian. Before I knew him personally, he was a mysteriously cool dude (he'd been in Jon-Rae and The River, fer goodness sake!) in a poncho that you'd see off to the side of the room at gigs, reading novels in French. Once I came to know him, I discovered he was truly a gentle man and a scholar. You can catch him these days under his own name or as Hoover Party, busily making drones (not drones).

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Digging through the MFS archives is a treat. Here's music from three shows I was at, and three shows I missed but enjoy imagining that I was there. The process made me feel old, though — lots of what I got excited about dragging up from the archival depths (Fox the Boombox, the Silt, Deep Dark United, etc.) turn out to date from a pre-MFS Toronto. Part of why it's nice to have this "service" of Joe's — it keeps things from falling entirely into "you had to be there" land. Still — good luck imagining Allison's dance, or the crowd chez Polyrhythmo, or that old 2011 feeling. Thanks to Joe for the memories and to everybody for making and continuing to make music, for the love of it, for whoever shows up and however little it pays. Makes this a nicer place to be.

Isla Craig - Parcel of Rogues

Allison Peacock & Alia O'Brien - unknown

Andy Haas - [excerpt]

Cheryl Duvall & Ilana Waniuk - Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano [final movement]

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - unknown

Jason Doell & Germaine Liu - Wild Bengal Tigers [excerpt]

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You can always click on the tags below to look for more stuff from these artists. Has there been a half-dozen songs posted here that made an impact on you? If you'd like to get in on the action and make a list, feel free to send me an email: mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com.

Recording: The Kyle Brenders Large Ensemble

Artist: The Kyle Brenders Large Ensemble

Songs: Brussels + Clomp

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), June 29, 2014.

The Kyle Brenders Large Ensemble - Brussels

The Kyle Brenders Large Ensemble - Clomp

Full review to follow. Maybe I oughtta be more jaded about it by now, but it still really blows my mind that y'can wander in off the street and — in the most relaxed and casual environment imaginable — watch a superbly-talented group of musicians work on their craft. To give some more textures to his compositions, Kyle Brenders has drafted a formidable chamber ensemble, each of whom I'd be happy to go see play in their other projects. Alongside Brenders' reeds, the group included Ilana Waniuk (violin), Cory Latkovich (cello), Rob Clutton (double bass), Mark Segger (percussion), Heather Segger (trombone), and Nicole Rampersaud (trumpet). The first set essayed a series of shorter pieces (from which we draw a couple contrasting samples here), while the second was given over to a suite entitled "Group Dynamics".

Recording: Cheryl Duvall & Ilana Waniuk

Artist: Cheryl Duvall & Ilana Waniuk

Song: Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano [final movement] (composer: Alfred Schnittke)

Recorded at The Tranzac - Main Hall ("The Second Annual Somewhere There Creative Music Festival" - Show 3), February 22, 2014.

Cheryl Duvall & Ilana Waniuk - Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano [final movement]

Full review to follow. In a festival filled with various degrees of "out" music, it was a nice touch to have some representatives of the recreative music scene. In terms of DIY spirit and energy put into fostering new, local sounds, the work that Cheryl Duvall and Ilana Waniuk do with Thin Edge Music Collective isn't too far removed from the what's going on at Somewhere There — and in any case, genre be damned, they can often be found playing alongside local "creative" musicians. As it turned out, this set (with this piece as well as some John Cage) included one of the least expected/most delightful moments of improvization in the festival when Waniuk broke a violin string. While musicians and crowd chatted about Schnittke, she sat down, changed the string, re-tuned and then threw herself back into the piece. Bravo!

Recording: Strange Strings Ensemble

Artist: Strange Strings Ensemble

Song: Famous Wildlife Movies I [excerpt] (Composer: Mike Smith)

Recorded at The Music Gallery ("Emergents I: Strange Strings"), December 12, 2013.

Strange Strings Ensemble - Famous Wildlife Movies I [excerpt]

Full review to follow. I don't normally tend to post two versions of the same song, but what we have here just happens to be a little bit different than the last time I saw this performed, so having a chance to hear 'em back-to-back may well be instructive. Here, Mike Smith is on synth, and joined by Ilana Waniuk (violin) and Amanda Penner (viola), two members of the ad hoc ensemble put together for this show, exploring new textures and new musical partners for traditional "classical" strings.

This exciting night was just the first of this season's Emergents series at the Music Gallery, each of which is going to be curated by a past graduate of the series. Next month's programme (on Friday, January 17, 2014), curated by Adam Scime, was just announced, and will feature Christopher Willes and the Montréal-based Ensemble Paramirabo.

Recording: Bespoken

Artist: Bespoken

Song: Aigre Douce IV

Recorded at The Tranzac (Main Hall), December 10, 2013.

Bespoken - Aigre Douce IV

Full review to follow. Conceived as an ad hoc ensemble to present one of Nick Storring's compositions, Bespoken has turned into something of an actual group. Joined by Matt Ramolo, Brandon Valdivia, Cheryl Duvall and Ilana Waniuk, this show also served as a launch party for the ensemble's first album, on the new Divorce Records sub-imprint Heavy Fog (which is dedicated to documenting "deep undercurrents in classical music"). Taking place in the Tranzac's main hall and with a cassette being sold at the door, this had a strong DIY feel that will hopefully serve as a catalyst to bring together folks from the New Music, free improvization and indie rock realms. (And on that score, do note that the band's next show will apparently be at the January edition of the Long Winter series.)